Pilots retrace Alaska-to-Siberia Lend-Lease route

David Lowrance, Sergei Baranov and Alan Anders are hoping to recreate the historic ALSIB flights a reality this summer. Source: Press Photo

An American foundation and its Russian partners are hoping to retrace the historic Lend-Lease route from Alaska to Siberia.

Today, as
many American politicians express concerns about Russian military patrol
flights possibly stretching to the East Coast of the United States, it seems impossible
to imagine that there was a time when 19 percent of Russian military aircraft
were U.S.-built.

In October
1941, the Lend-Lease Act, which provided U.S.
military aid to the UK and China, was extended to the Soviet
Union. From October 1, 1941 to May 31, 1945 the U.S. provided the Soviet
Union nearly half a million vehicles, 2 million tons of gas and
oil and nearly 4.5 million tons of food, along with more than 8,000 aircraft.

There were
several paths by which American goods reached Soviet territory, but the most
direct was the Alaska to Siberia air route
(ALSIB), which reached from the Ladd Army Airfield in Fairbanks,
Alaska to Soviet pilot training facilities in Krasnoyarsk – a distance
of nearly 4,000 miles.

This year, the Bravo369 Flight Foundation with the support of Russian aviation
company, Rusavia, plans to trace the entirety of the ALSIB route, starting not
in Alaska, but at Great
Falls, Montana, which was a
staging area for many of the planes eventually shipped across Siberia.

An memorial to ALSIB in Fairbanks, Alaska was erected in 2006. From Fairbanks, Soviet pilots took the Lend-Lease planes into Siberia. Source: Alamy/Legion Media

Rusavia
head Sergei Baranov, a known aviation enthusiast, said he was inspired to
participate in the project because of what the ALSIB flights represented — the
cooperation of two superpowers. He also recognizes that the celebrations of the
70th anniversary of Victory Day will be the last for many World War II
veterans. “It is our chance to say goodbye and pay honor to the last of those
brave men and women,” Baranov said, speaking about the project.

As part of
the Lend-Lease program, the U.S.
supplied the Soviet army with the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, the Douglas A-20
Boston/Havoc and the legendary Bell P-39 Aircobra, the principal American
fighter aircraft of the time.

The plane
was popular among many Soviet pilots, including World War II hero Alexander Pokryshkin who shot down 48 German planes while flying one: “I
liked Aircobra, because of it’s appearance and powerful weapons,” Pokryshkin
wrote in his 1986 autobiography “Know Yourself in Combat.” During the war, the
Soviet air force scored more kills per pilot with the Aircobra than pilots
using any other type of U.S.
fighter plane.

Jeff Geer,
the president and executive director of Bravo369, told RBTH that his team
didn’t originally plan to recreate the ALSIB route, but discovered it while
preparing a different flight from Washington
state, where the foundation is based, via Nome, Alaska to Russia.

The first
flight on the route took place on Sept. 29, 1942. Over the next 21 months,
nearly 8,000 planes were flown to Russia via the ALSIB route. Only
133 of them were lost. The flights took approximately 33 days, with frequent
stops between Fairbanks and Krasnoyarsk.

The pilots
of the BRAVO369 Flight Foundation have already done significant preparation for
the mission. In 2013, they flew the first part of the route from Great Falls to Fairbanks
in a World War II training aircraft known as the AT-6 Texan.

Two Douglas planes and one Mitchell have been purchased by
Rusavia for the mission. The B-25 Mitchell was used as a support ship on the
ALSIB missions because it had space for a co-pilot and navigator as well as
advanced navigational equipment.

Geer said
that he believes that both the flight and the documentary about the flight,
“Warplanes to Siberia,” will open up new
possibilities for promoting “friendship, cooperation and goodwill between our
two countries.”

“We have found
that very few people including historians, government officials, military
personnel, students or the general public have ever heard of ALSIB or know of
its importance during World War II,” Geer said.

The project
has backing from Russia’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the Defense Ministry, said Dmitry Litovkin, who handles public relations for the project. A source close to the
Presidential Administration said that senior administration officials might pay
a visit to planes when they are on display at the MAKS air show, which will
take place in Moscow
in August.

Bravo369 is
hoping to start the flight in July, but is still raising money for the project.
Those who would like to contribute can donate on the project website.